FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT FARSI - PAGE 3

NEW DELHI: State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is likely to net about $1,250 m in revenue from its investment in overseas operations during the 10th Five-Year Plan period ('02-07). ONGC will start getting revenue from its investment in a Vietnam gas project from the current fiscal itself, with an expected $6m flowing from the sale of gas to the downstream industries in Vietnam, company sources said. The revenue projections do not include the recent $720m deal for taking 40 per cent stake in the Greater Nile Oil project of Sudan from where the corporation would get 3mt of crude oil annually.

NEW DELHI: The Obama administration has threatened to slap sanctions against 41 oil firms that include ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation for having energy ties with Iran. "The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) provides for sanctions against persons, including foreign firms, who invest more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector in any 12-month period," a report titled 'Firms Reported to Have Commercial Activity in the Iranian Energy Sector and US government contracts' said.

WASHINGTON: Ping pong diplomacy helped thaw US-China relations and YouTube diplomacy may do the same for US ties with Iran. President Barack Obama, whose use of the Web helped catapult him into the White House, turned to the Internet again to launch the first major diplomatic initiative of his young presidency. In recording a video message to the Iranian people marking the Iranian New Year Nowruz and distributing it online, Obama seized one of the Web tools he used so effectively during his presidential campaign.

Iran: Iran on Tuesday indicated that it may award rights to develop the 12.8 trillion cubic feet gas find in the Farsi block in that country to the Indian consortium led by ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. "We are (currently) assessing the commerciality of the finds (made by OVL and its parnters)... Our priority will be to give the development rights to ONGC," Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on sidelines of the 19th World Petroleum Congress here.

NEW DELHI: A consortium of Indian companies led by ONGC Videsh (OVL) has dropped its plan to produce oil from the Farsi block in Iran due to high sulphur content in the crude, which makes commercial production unviable. "The consortium doesn't intend to surrender the (Farsi) block as it will produce gas from the field," said a senior executive with OVL, the overseas investment arm of Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), the country's largest energy firm. The consortium has already submitted a $5 billion development plan to produce gas from the field, he said, requesting anonymity.

NEW DELHI: Recently imposed stringent US and EU sanctions against Iran have jeopardised the $8-billion plan of three Indian state-run oil companies to jointly develop the Farsi gas field, as their consortium is finding it difficult to access technology and funding to execute the project. An official of one of the companies said no US or European company will provide liquefaction technology for a gas project in Iran, making it a non-starter. Liquefaction technology converts natural gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG)

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today presented a tax free budget of a size of Rs 2,74,705 crore for this fiscal, with a proposed deficit of Rs 4,132 crore. The budgetary provisions are higher by 24 per cent as compared to 2013-14 financial year. While no new taxes have been proposed, there has also been no allocation for the ambitious free laptop, kanya vidyadhan and unemployment allowance promised by the ruling Samajwadi Party in its election manifesto during assembly elections in 2012.

By Dr Suvarnalata Rao Sufism is neither a religion nor a cult. Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi philosopher and practitioner himself, describes it as, "Any person who has knowledge of both outer and inner life is a Sufi. " The etymology of the term 'Sufi' is not without ambiguity though. According to some scholars, the word is connected with safi, the pure. The more general view refers to suf or the coarse wool worn by the Sufi mystics. The Divine Connect Sufism, as the mystical dimension of Islam , preaches peace, tolerance and pluralism, while encouraging music as a way of deepening one's relationship with the Creator.

NEW DELHI: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has begun drilling for oil in Farshi offshore block of Iran. "Well BB-4 was spud by rig Kedarnath on April 28," a company official said. The rig was provided by ONGC from its fleet of offshore rigs to enable OVL to fulfill its work commitment in the Farsi block, as OVL was unable to get rig in the international market due to right market conditions.

NEW DELHI: Iran has awarded the development of an offshore oil field that state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) had abandoned as commercially unviable, to a domestic company. ONGC Videsh Ltd and its partners Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) had in 2009 dropped plans to develop the Binaloud oil find in the Farsi offshore block as it found one billion barrels of reserves commercially unviable. However, Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC)